Django Unchained is the new film by Quentin Tarantino and his commentary on slavery in America.

Tarantino is a victim of the Hollywood bubble he lives in, and has taken on too much in this movie. I think he really wanted to make a valid statement about the issue of slavery, but what he ends with is his usual pop-culture fare. He gives the serious subject of slavery a slap in the face, and takes the opportunity to throw in a racist slurs in every other sentence.

I don't think we are at a point in our history where we can take on this subject in a light manner as is the case with Django Unchained, which is basically a spaghetti western on steroids.

Tarantino and the stars of the film justify this fictitious story with the idea that they have created some sort of black superhero who fights for his wife’s freedom. But several times in the film there is reference to the character Django as the “one in 10,000 black men” as an anomaly, and portrays all the other black people in the film in a stereotypical manner.

What does work is the strong performance of Jamie Fox as Django, who pulls off a strong appealing character that works. You root for him to free himself and his wife from slavery. There is also strong acting in the film by Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays Calvin Candie as the violent, ignorant buffoon who is the owner of the plantation. He is the perfect villain.

There are people who will praise the film as a success and look past the trivial manner in which slavery is treated in this film. I can’t. If you can get past the incredible amount of racial slurs and incredible violence, then by all means see it.

This is one of the most important films of the year, no matter how you feel about it.